Daryl Watts signed a two-year deal with PWHL Toronto, the team announced on Friday night.
Watts, 25, was the best player available when free agency opened on Friday at 8 a.m. ET. She played the inaugural season with Ottawa, led the team in goals (10) and finished third in points (17). During her end-of-year media availability, Watts was candid about testing the open market to “see what the best fit would be for next year.”
Watts — a Toronto native — is a highly skilled winger with elite vision and hands and an excellent shot. Last year, much of Toronto’s offense came from Natalie Spooner (20 goals) or Sarah Nurse (11 goals). Watts should give Toronto another dynamic scoring option at the top of the lineup.
Daryl Watts, folks pic.twitter.com/3QPShzTwi3
— Kyle Cushman (@Kyle_Cush) May 6, 2024
“She is an incredible offensive threat that has proven herself in this league,” general manager Gina Kingsbury said in a press release. “We felt adding some offence to our roster was an important piece to the puzzle.”
Toronto makes a lot of sense as a landing spot for Watts, especially when we consider the 2026 Winter Olympics are less than two years away.
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Watts has yet to crack the Canadian national women’s team and will now have an opportunity to showcase her game to Toronto coach Troy Ryan and general manager Gina Kingsbury — who also happen to be the coach and general manager of Team Canada — on a daily basis in the lead-up to the Olympics. A dominant stretch in Toronto could help strengthen her case for the Olympic team, especially if shows chemistry with national team members like Nurse, Spooner or Turnbull.
Last year, Watts was a bit of a wild card entering the PWHL draft. She was one of the best players in college hockey across her career from 2017 to 2022 — winning the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2018 and scoring the game-winning goal in the 2021 National Championship game — but what she might look like in the PWHL was a bit of a question mark heading into the draft after a short retirement and a non-descript stint with the PHF’s Toronto Six.
She fell to Round 6 and played bottom-six minutes early in the season for Ottawa. When she was elevated to the top of the lineup, however, Watts was one of the league’s more productive, entertaining forwards.
She was certainly a priority for Ottawa, who narrowly missed the playoffs, to keep around. But when Watts officially hit the open market on Friday, there was interest from multiple teams, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation. She ultimately chose Toronto.
“Toronto is my home,” Watts said in the release. “Having grown up here watching the Toronto Maple Leafs makes returning to Toronto to play professional hockey a dream come true.”
Toronto scored the most goals in the PWHL last season and looks even scarier heading into 2024-25 with a top nine that could include: Nurse, Spooner — when she returns from her knee injury — Hannah Miller, Emma Maltais, Blayre Turnbull, first-round pick Julia Gosling, 2024 Patty Kazmaier winner Izzy Daniel, and Watts.
(Photo: Richard A. Whittaker / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
